Steve Durante “Update”

Interview by Charles Paratte and Damon Vorce Portrait by John Glogowski

Steve is a man of few words but once you get to know him he has a lot to say. His skating comes across like its effortless but he sometimes has to work for it. Steve is a true East Coast skateboarder who’s seen it all . I’m proud to have him as a friend and having him on my team is just icing on the cake.

Damon Vorce

What’s your favorite place in New Jersey and why? Well I grew up and currently reside in Villas NJ which is the very bottom of South Jersey and my family and friends are here so I’d have to say that’s my favorite place. But I spent a lot of time in North Jersey skating and hanging with friends and have a lot of history up there so I’ll just say I love every part of the Garden State!

You used to hang out a lot with Brian Wenning before you’ve both got hooked up by Habitat. Both of you seems to have taken opposite directions. Could you give a few words about this era ? Well Brian got me hooked up with Habitat Crew when I was 18, it was life changing just to get a box from your all-time favorite company. As time went on I actually was supposed to ride for Alien Workshop and not Habitat… But I ended up on Habitat. Brian and I were still chilling every week. We chilled more than we skated together that’s just how we were. I went to Mexico one year with him and his family for Christmas it was amazing! He’s done so much for skateboarding and opened a door to an innovation that we’ll never see again in skateboarding. At least anything good I’ll just say it was good while it lasted.

What was the best part of being am for Habitat ? Fuck man just the fact that when I was a kid all I ever dreamed of was being sponsored by Alien or Habitat. My friends and I would go to Philly every weekend and we witnessed a lot of the footage from Photosynthesis go down in person. I’ve always looked up to Brian, Freddy, Tim and Rob. I was proud to be the latest addition to the New Jersey tradition. The NJ Scums had a good run with habitat for a while. Freddy is the last man standing. I miss those days we had some good times.

Your Inahabitant part was amazing, and quite unexpected for a lot of people. How do you consider your progression now? Thanks, that’s the part I’ve been the most happy with. Nowadays I skate as much as I can. I’d say as far as progression wise it’s still there I just have to get hyped and see what happens out there.

You were filming for the I-Path video that never came out. How did you feel about the out come of “The Other Ones”. I fee like it was a lost video of sorts. Yeah I feel like a lot of people maybe didn’t see it either. It was fun filming for that video. We went on a lot of good trips, doing demos and skating a lot of parks. Everyone on the team got along like family. There was a lot of shit going on over there, and all of a sudden I-Path didn’t want to do the video anymore. Long story short a bunch of us quit but we still wanted to put the video out. So Thad Corskey and the rest of us all chipped in to make it happen. We called it “The Other Ones”.

How didPolitic skateboards come in your life. ? Did you take part of the project or you just have been asked to join them? Politic is a company started by two of my good friends from Albany, Damon and Chris. After everything fell apart with Habitat they hit me up telling me about the company and seeing if I was interested. At first I was very hesitated because I was very relieved after I got kicked off Habitat. It was like a huge weight lifted off my shoulders because I was ready go back to real life no more stressing over deadlines for videos or photos.. Granted riding for Habitat was the best times on my life and they took great care of me and I was more than thankful for that but I knew I wasn’t gonna make a living off it. With Politic it seemed more laid back. I talked it over with Brian Brown and basically he said if you’re down I’m down…And that’s how it happened… Curtis Rapp and Jason Spivey are great additions and having Danny Renaud on board makes it complete.

Do you feel any pressure? No not at all, I do what I can when I have the time to get things done. It’s awesome riding for your homies company. Politic is blowing up though I’m sure I’ll be kicked off sooner than later for slacking…ha-ha. Nah its good though, they have my back.

Have you got a « real » job beside skating by now? Yeah just went back to the restaurant I’ve worked at since I was a kid. They take great care of me but I wouldn’t call it a real job. Its work, I work 5-6 days a week, but it’s like working for my family over there.

Did you find that being a professional skateboarder is a lot of work and being gifted and good on a board is not enough? Fuck man, I worked my ass off to get to where I’m at in skating and its been harder than any other job. No matter how easy skating is for someone, it’s still never easy. Stressing over tricks and spots it never ends.

What are your short time projects? Some more coverage coming? Right now we are working on a re-edit of some of my older footage that was never put out around the time of the “Other Ones” video. So that should be kinda tight. Politic Promo is coming this Fall. Trying to do what I can for that. Got some things in the works.